we had the free syria army, the people who really are for democracy in syria. and assad was losing that war. then what happened, mr. speaker, iran unleashed its proxy, its terrorist proxy, hezbollah into syria, and hezbollah entered the war in syria on the side of assad. and that turned the war, unfortunately, to assad's favor. so now we are in a position where assad doesn't want to negotiate, doesn't want to sue for peace, certainly doesn't want to negotiate his own exit from power in syria, which we all thought was imminent just a few months ago, and he feels he he has the upper hand because is ally, iran, has changed the course of the war in there by unleashing their proxy, hezbollah, a terrorist group, to fight on the side of assad. so assad has essentially become an iranian puppet in his own country. and that is iran continuing to do all kinds of mischief while they are negotiating with us. ostensibly so that they would not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon at the end of the day. we know that the israelis have taken matters into their own hands, and when